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Wednesday, May 4, 2016

50 Miles in April & Prairie Fire Half

51.05 miles for April completed.

The Prairie Fire Half was on May 1st and surprisingly, it was harder than both the El Dorado and St. Louis halfs. I did improve my El Dorado (4/2/16) to St. Louis (4/10/16) time by 7 minutes, 36 seconds and my St. Louis to Prairie Fire time by 1 minute, 17 seconds. So there's that. But I am still about 14 minutes slower than my best time.

It was cold the morning of Prairie Fire, more than I expected, and initially I froze in my capris and short sleeves. The weather didn't warm up, but I got hot after awhile. I started out with Non-Stop Mom who was determined we were going to break 3 hours. We started out well, but I had run 5 miles the morning before (to complete my April 50) and my legs fatigued pretty quickly. I still haven't mastered the what-to-eat-before-a-run thing, and have found I get nauseous and/or stomach cramps (you know the kind) if I eat at all. The afternoon before I had eaten Mongolian stir-fry (omg, SO good!) and a vegan raisin oatmeal cookie that night. Nothing the morning of. I spent most of the night sick to my stomach and honestly thought I'd have to skip the race. By morning I felt better and went. My stomach did alright for the most part, with a little nausea which could have been from NOT eating.

Anyway, I had a couple extended walk breaks in it, and my knee was feeling awful. I was frustrated looking at my watch and wondering in my head why these races always suck for me. NSM caught up with me (she was a few paces behind) and told me we still had a chance of breaking 3 hours. So I sped up. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have hit 3 hours.. and 32 fucking seconds. In my defense, if the course hadn't gone over by .10 mile, I would have beaten the 3 hour mark. Hell, if St. Louis hadn't gone over by .10something a mile, I'd have beaten the 3 hours too. But whatever.

Afterwards, my knee got back to normal - normal for my knee, which includes pressure and feeling like my kneecap is floating - almost immediately afterwards. Without the knee, some mild quad pain and milder hamstring pain, I couldn't really tell I'd run a half. I'm going to take this as a good sign.

Right now, next half is scheduled for August. #13. I think maybe I should train for this one?